Mountain King II vs Ardent up front

Ready for a new front tire (I a ride rigid Karate Monkey in the LA area) and I'm debating between the Continental Mountain King II 2.4 and Maxxis Ardent 2.4. I currently have a X-King 2.4 front and back and as a front tire I'm finding that i need a bit more grip up front especially on the rougher/looser stuff on the descents. Thoughts?

The Ardent 2.4 is probably a good bit bigger than the Conti. At least my experience with the 2.2 X-King suggests they run a bit on the small side. (my 2.2 X-King is 2.1" wide, and I've heard that the 2.4 X-King is about 2.25" wide. The Ardent 2.25 looks absolutely enormous by comparison IMO. 2.4 is even bigger.)

The On-One chunky monkey is an option as well. I have intentions to get one to try out sometime after my Ardent wears out a bit more. It uses the Maxxis Ardent 2.4 casing.

I really like my Ardent 2.4 and it is definitely big and ride it at 20PSI. I weigh 175 with a rigid bike.

The only negative with the Ardent is the lack of transition knobs so you really have to lean the bike over to get the side knobs to dig in. Sometimes the wheel will slip and you will regain traction. Once you have confidence in the Ardent and rail the turns it is a lot of fun.

I have a Mountain King 2.4 Protection as a front tire on my Evil Sovereign (X-King 2.4 at the back). It certainly does have more bite than a X-King, which is my front tire on my Cotic Soul (Race King at the back of this one). I find that I have to run a fairly low pressure to keep it from boucing too much (tubeless on a Easton Haven rim). But I'm only 130lbs. I find it's a fairly big tire...

Stopped by my shop yesterday and they were out of both my choices, but I ended up getting a Trailking 2.2. I compared sizes (on same rims as me) and the TK 2.2 is the same width/general size as the XK 2.4 I had up front. We'll see how it fairs in the race this weekend.

I liked the MK 2.4. I ran the non-protection version. It was very supple and had a ton of grip. Never ran it out front, so I cant directly compare it to an ardent. If its not 2.4 actual width, its gotta be fairly close.

I run the MKII 2.4 on the front of my full squish. It bites. By which I mean the only time that tire has given up on me traction wise is when I was just stupid fast blasting through a turn and got a little wide of my line and hit a root, then it slid. I've been liking it enough that I'm debating putting one on the front of my SS.

Fat, fatter & fattest - of those I've run (Rampage, Ra-Ra, X-King)
for it's size weight it is both fast & grippy. Conti tire sizing is erratic at best.
Note: the 2.4 does have transition knobs, and on a P-35 it barely fits a Reba Team.